02/06/2014 11:00CEV and Daimler announce three-year Official Car Partner cooperation for CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final News from the CEV

Luxembourg, June 2, 2014. The CEV and Daimler have agreed on a partnership whereby the worldwide-known Daimler brand smart that designs, manufactures and markets city cars will support the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final for three years, starting with the 2014 edition that is just about to get underway this Tuesday on Poetto beach in Cagliari, Italy. The deal will continue all the way through to the 2016 edition in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, i.e. the last stop on the way that leads the top European Beach Volleyball teams to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“We all know that smart has a very strong connection with Beach Volleyball and that their involvement in the sport started already more than 10 years ago,” CEV President André Meyer says. “I am therefore absolutely thrilled that we can now build on the good partnership of smart with the European Championship Tour from 2005 to 2010. The association of the smart brand with the CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final and the possibility to extend such cooperation also for other CEV Beach Volleyball competitions provides the opportunity to further grow European Beach Volleyball together”, he continues. “Beach Volleyball and smart share a lot of common features; the winning mix provided by this partnership will certainly help us raise the popularity and appeal of our sport with some innovative features and, more specifically, of our Championship to new heights.”

The CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final was established more than twenty years ago with the inaugural men’s tournament held in Almeria, Spain, in 1993. The first women’s final followed one year later. The Championship is now returning to Italy for the fourth time after Riccione (1996), Pescara (1997), and Jesolo (2001) had previously hosted the tournament. The competition will be joined by 32 teams per gender, including all of the top European pairs who have left their mark also on the FIVB World Tour. The venue of the 2015 edition is still to be determined, while the Swiss city of Biel/Bienne is set to welcome Europe’s Beach Volleyball elite in 2016 for a terrific Beach Volleyball party only a few weeks before the Olympic tournament gets underway on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Click here for more information on the European Championship Final in Cagliari.